Game Unplayable - Staff please respond

LLB · #1 November 22nd, 2001, 01:24 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Alpha Kodiak:
Man, this is not the thread Dell's marketing department wants the world to see!

Question, if you just turn on the laptop and let it sit for a half hour or so doing nothing, will SEIV work properly or not? That might be a clue as to what sort of issue to look for.

Well, I actually like my two Dell machines. There just seems to be a quirk in the laptops that crashes SEIV, or, probably more accurately, there's a quirk in SEIV that causes it to crash on Dell laptops.

Your idea of letting the machine sit for a half hour before trying the program is interesting. Usually when I turn the laptop on it's because I mean to do something with it

, so I've never tried your suggestion. I will when I get a chance, because I agree that the results might be informative.

Thanks,
L

LLB · #2 November 22nd, 2001, 01:41 AM

quote:
Originally posted by [K126]Mephisto:
Sorry, didn't read the part about the laptop. If only dell laptops with ME are the ones that crash it is probably a dell problem, I agree.

No sweat, Mephisto. I thought you were making good sense, because hardware glitches *can* cause just the sort of infuriating intermittent errors we've been describing. I've been there too, and it's *not* fun

.

L

Peeve · #3 November 24th, 2001, 09:58 PM

Hmm.. I am having the same problem on a new Dell desktop. Old Dell desktop (P3 450 Win 98 SE) has no problem with SE IV. New Dell desktop (P4 1.7 GHz WinMe) has the range check error when I try to move a ship anywhere. I will see if the work around mentioned earlier solves the problem and post back.

Peeve · #4 November 25th, 2001, 05:01 PM

Got it to work. Started SE IV and got the range check error, closed game, waited 45 minutes then started again and played for 4 hours with no problems.
I had a similar "timing" problem with Diablo 2 with the key being 1 hour for that game, but that is for a different forum.

Thanks!

Atrocities · #5 November 25th, 2001, 06:28 PM

Peeve, I'm sorry dude, but I have never heard of that. What are your system spec's?

Puke · #6 November 25th, 2001, 07:51 PM

se4 runs fine for me, but i have problems with winME that other winME Users dont seem to have. i have traced it down to the fact that there are several different OEM distributions of ME with entirely different features / problems.

I think you are better off not using ME if you can avoid it. upgrade to 2k or downgrade to 98. or find the old thread about running se4 under VMware

LLB · #7 November 26th, 2001, 10:00 PM

Peeve,

Yours is the first Dell desktop that I've seen reported with this problem. The rest of us are seeing it on laptops.

Judging from the configuration you quote I'm guessing that it's a more recent purchase than my Dell desktop (purchased in May, 1 GHz PIII, WinME), which runs SEIV without problems. But my Dell laptop, purchased in July (900 MHz PIII, WinME), exhibits the RCE-crash pattern.

On Puke's theory, suggesting the possibility of a problem related to the OEM Version of ME, I'm now wondering if Dell added something to their Version of ME between May and July that could be causing SEIV to choke. Maybe if all of us who are having the problem report when they purchased their machines, we'll see a pattern that will help pin this bug down.

L